METHOD AND SYSTEM OF BILLING FOR CHARGING A VEHICLE BATTERY LEVERAGING A PRE-ARRANGED PAYMENT METHOD
A method and system provided for a single-action with which the customer places an order and receives goods by the single action of connecting an electrical vehicle (EV) to a charging station according to the business terms associated with this invention, the affiliated organizations that purchase or support the operation of the invention participate in a business “franchise” operation whereby all affiliated organizations increase their revenues as the volume of EV charging events increases.
This application claims the benefited of our earlier filled provisional application titled: Method and process of administrating recharging of electric vehicles using low cost charge stations filed on Oct. 9, 2009 and filled provisional application titled: Method and Process of billing for goods leveraging a single connection action filed on Oct. 9, 2009.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to a single-action fully automated method and system for placing an order and delivering goods leveraging pre-arranged agreements over the Internet (or other networks) and enabling multiple parties to share in the revenues generated from the sales of said goods.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe rising cost of hydrocarbon based fuels and environmental factors will require a massive transformation of society’s transportation infrastructure from fossil fuel to electricity as the primary means of powering vehicles. As electrical vehicles (EV) enter mass production a new infrastructure that consists of numerous, conveniently located electrical charging stations will be required such that drivers can reliably re-charge their EV’s batteries while away from home. Furthermore, EV battery charging technology that is simple to use (i.e. does not require human supervision nor the use of cash, credit cards, debit cards, and/or digital “smart” cards) and least costly to manufacture, install, and maintain (because it is not burdened with network communications technologies) is most likely to achieve wide-spread adoption. Such charging stations will enable the EV driver to experience the same ease of re-charging their EV remotely that they experience while re-charging at home, with the convenience of having the electricity cost for all EV re-charging (whether done at home or away from home) charged to a credit account, consolidated onto the regular monthly invoice, or automatically deducted from a bank account of their choice. The introduction of EV charging technology will require inherent business risks on the part of the manufacturers of EVs and the owner operators of EV charging facilities. Because of these risks, the EV charging technology which offers such entities the opportunity to establish a business “franchise” based on fees associated with EV charging events is most likely to be adopted. The combined attraction of such EV charging technology for EV owners (for convenience), EV charge service providers (for the for the cost of ownership of the charging technology) and EV Manufacturers and EV charge service providers (for the business value offered by the “franchise”) would create the greatest likelihood for accelerated adoption of this technology in the market.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe objective of this invention is to provide a method that in response to a Single Action Event; initiates, establishes, and completes an end-to-end transaction based solution for charging Electric Vehicles via networked connected infrastructure.
The Single Action Event occurs when an Electric Vehicle is coupled to an Electric Vehicle Charging Station. This coupling initiates an automated sequence of events that encompasses consumer and charging service provider identification and authorization, utility company electricity rates and policy, cost assessment of services rendered, method of payment via electronic billing transaction, and distribution of billing fees across interested parties such as Electric Vehicle Manufacturers and Charging Station Service Providers etc.
Consumer and charging service provider identification and authorization collateral is determined via prearranged agreements. Said agreements and contracts are individually established between interested parties where identification and authorization data is collected, secured, and is used in the end-to-end Electric Vehicle charging transaction based solution.
Utility Company electricity rates and policy are dynamically accessed and implemented “real-time” to calculate and determine the exact electricity rates and policy during the active charge cycle for billing fee determination.
Method of payment via electronic billing transaction, and distribution of billing fees across interested parties such as Electric Vehicle Manufacturers and Charging Station Service Providers etc. is predetermined via agreements. When the Electric Vehicle charging cycle terminates billing information and fees are registered and interested parties accounts are modulated accordingly.
The Single Action Event is not limited to having an internet and/or network connection at the immediate time the Electric Vehicle connects to an Electric Charging Station having charging services rendered. Intelligence is comprehended and built-in to “store and forward” relevant information when a network connection is eventually established. This store and forward capability establish a uniqueness that allows the Electric Vehicle Charge Stations to be placed in locations where a network connection may not be feasible thus allowing the Electric Vehicle to “Roam” and attaining a charge anywhere there is a Utility Company service available, i.e. power lines.
In summary, the invention provides a method that on a Single Action Event establishes an end-to-end infrastructure and billing environment that seamlessly allows Electric Vehicles and consumers to charge vehicles without complexity and enables Electric Vehicle “roaming” flexibility.
In other aspects, the invention provides a system and method having features and advantages corresponding to those discussed above.
Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
The present invention provides a method and system for a single-action ordering method based on pre-arranged agreements between the electric vehicle owner and service provider (electric power utility and/or third party charging service) to charge the vehicle leveraging integrated client and Internet server environment. The single action is the connection of the electrical vehicle (EV) to a charging station. The single-action ordering system of the present invention reduces the number of purchaser interactions needed to place an order and reduces the amount of sensitive information that is transmitted between a vehicle client system and an Internet server authentication system. In one embodiment, the vehicle client is assigned a unique vehicle client identifier and is unique to each vehicle client system. The server system also stores purchaser-specific and vendor-specific billing information which is used for remote billing for services rendered. The server system maps each client identifier to a purchaser which is mapped to the billing account. Along with the order information, a unique identifier of the vendor is also sent so to the billing server so the client is mapped to the vendor and the vendor’s electricity rates and policies in order to process billing.
The single action ordering method is initially enabled when a consumer purchases an EV vehicle. The EV vehicle, when consumer owned, is referred to as the EV Client in the following figures.
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Instances may arise where a connection to a billing transaction service provider cannot be initiated (referred to as an “Occasional” connection) or fully maintained through completion during a real time EV Client/EV Charge Station exchange 18. In such cases the EV Client and EV Charge station will authorize charging services up to a predetermined credit limit 22 and the EV Client will be charged 23. All associated data and billing information will be cached within the EV Client and the Charge Station. Upon next connection availability, the EV Client 23 will transmit the cached data to a billing transaction service provider 21 and the process will be terminated 24. Additionally any successful future Charge Station connection with the billing system will cause the cache to be transmitted for transaction billing.
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In some embodiments, a method of placing an order for an item may include, under control of a client system, in response to a single-action being performed, sending a request to order an electric vehicle charge event along with a unique identifier of the vehicle owner in combination with the connected charging service Vendor ID and vendor’s unit unique public key to the server system; under control of the connected charging service vendor system, in response to a single-action being performed, sending its unique Vendor ID, prevailing electricity rates, billing policies, and public key to the server system via the connection enabled by the electric vehicle; and under the control of a single-action ordering component of the server system receiving the request, retrieving additional information previously stored for the purchaser identified by the identifier in the received request in combination with the unique identifier of the charging service vendor and public key, generating a secure authentication message to start the electric vehicle charge event to the charge station and transmitting billing related information to the charge station as needed via the connection to the electric vehicle.
In some embodiments, the single-action is connecting the charging station to the electrical vehicle. Also, in some embodiments, a user of the client system does not need to explicitly identify themselves when connection the electric vehicle.
In addition, in some embodiments, a client system for ordering an item may include an identifier that identifies a customer; and a single-action ordering component that in response to performance of only a single-action, sends a request to a server system to order an electric vehicle charge event and vendor ID so that the server system can locate additional information needed to complete the order and so that the server system can fulfill the generated order to complete purchase of the charge event.
Further, in some embodiments, the predefined single-action is the connecting of the charging station to the electrical vehicle.
Moreover, in some embodiments, a server system for generating an order may include a data storage medium storing information for a plurality of users; a receiving component for receiving requests to order an electric vehicle charge event, a request including an indication of one of the plurality of users, the request being sent in response to only a single action being performed; an order placement component that retrieves from the data storage medium information for the indicated electric vehicle owner and electric vehicle charge service provider and that uses the retrieved information to place an order for the indicated user for the item; and an order fulfillment component that completes a purchase of the charge event in accordance with the order placed by the single-action ordering component which specifies amount of electricity consumed as well as prevailing rates and billing policies.
In some embodiments, the request is sent by a client system in response to a single-action (connecting the electric vehicle to the charging station).
In addition, in some embodiments, a method of ordering an item using a client system may include displaying information identifying the state of electric vehicle battery charge and electricity rates and policy information and displaying an indication of a single-action that is to be performed to order a charge event (connecting the electric vehicle to the charging station); and in response to only the indicated single-action being performed, sending to a server system a request to order an electric vehicle charge event, whereby authentication is sent to the vendor to fulfill the order to complete a purchase of the item.
In addition, in some embodiments, the server system uses a client identifier sent along with the request to identify additional information needed to generate an authentication for the electric vehicle charge event. In some embodiments, the server system uses a vendor identifier database that identifies the charging services vendor system. In addition, in some embodiments, the client system and server system communicate via the Internet or any network communication link.
Moreover, some embodiments further include sending from the server system to the client system a confirmation that the order was generated, and some embodiments further include sending from the client system to the vendor charging station system a confirmation that the order was generated.
Moreover, some embodiments further include sending from the server system to the client system a packet of data that enables the update of software and/or data, as well as electricity rate and policy data, electronically stored on the vendor charging station, and some embodiments further include sending from the client system to the vendor charging station a packet of data that enables the update of software and/or data, as well as electricity rate and policy data, electronically stored on the vendor charging station.
In addition, in some embodiments, the single-action is connecting the changing station to the electrical vehicle.
In some embodiments, a client system for transmitting billing information related to fulfillment of a fulfilled electric vehicle charging order may include an identifier that identifies a customer (electric vehicle owner); and a single-action ordering component that in response to a sequence of events initiated by a single-action sends a packet of billing information (including customer identifier, charging station vendor identifier, and data related to the electric vehicle charging event) to a server system to implement billing of the customer for the charge event.
In some embodiments, the predefined single-action is connecting the electric vehicle to the charging station and the sequence of events initiated by this single-action is the complete charging of the electric vehicle’s batteries or the disconnection of the electric vehicle from the charging station. Moreover, in some embodiments, the client system transmits a packet of billing information (including customer identifier, charging station vendor identifier, and data related to the electric vehicle charging event) to a server system to implement billing of the customer for the charge event. Also, in some embodiments, the client system recognizes if the communication link with the server system has been temporarily disconnected and continues to send the packet of billing information until the connection is restored and the packet is successfully transmitted to the server system.
In addition, in some embodiments, a server system for implementing billing of fulfilled electric vehicle charging orders may include a data storage medium storing information for a plurality of electric vehicle owners, charging services vendors, EV manufacturers, and other affiliated organizations, including the unique affiliations that exists between manufacturers and owners of electric vehicles; a receiving component for receiving electricity rate information (including static rates, time of use rate schedules, and dynamic price signals) and charging policy information (including any restrictions or conditions placed on charging events) from the source of this information (e.g. electric power utilities, electric charge service providers, and other entities); a receiving component for receiving a billing information packet related to an electric vehicle charge event (including electric vehicle owner identifier, charging station vendor identifier, and data related to the electric vehicle charging event) being received in response to a sequence of events initiated by single-action being performed; a billing fulfillment component that retrieves from the data storage medium information for the indicated electric vehicle owner and uses the retrieved information to calculate a service fee (as a percentage of the billing generated by the charging event and/or on a per transaction basis) automatically withdraw funds (equal to the billed value of the charging event plus the service fee) from a designated EV owner’s account (or charge the EV owner’s designated credit account) via a pre-arranged agreement, and a franchise bonus fulfillment component that retrieves from the data storage medium information for affiliated organizations (the vendor of charging services, the manufacturer of the EV, and other organizations) and uses the retrieved information to calculate bonus payments (as a percentage of the above mentioned service fee) and disperse said “bonus” payments to these affiliated organizations (either immediately or accumulated and paid on a billing schedule as defined with these organizations).
In some embodiments, the server system uses a client identifier sent along with the request to identify additional information needed to calculate billing for an electric vehicle charge event. In addition, in some embodiments, the server system uses a vendor identifier database that identifies the owner operator of the electric vehicle charging station (i.e. the charging service vendor) and/or the affiliated electric service utility that provides electric service to this vendor. Also, in some embodiments, the server system communicate via the Internet or any network communication link.
Moreover, in some embodiments, the server system automatically withdraws funds (equal to the billed value of the charging event plus the service fee) from a designated EV owner’s account (or charges the EV owner’s designated credit account) via a pre-arranged agreement. Further, in some embodiments, the server system automatically disperses “bonus” payments to affiliated organizations (either immediately or accumulated and paid on a billing schedule as defined with these organizations). Some embodiments also include sending from the server system to the client system a confirmation that billing for the vehicle charging transaction has been completed, and some embodiments further include sending from the server system to the vehicle charging services vendor, EV manufacturer, or other affiliated organizations a transaction record of the electric vehicle charging event for billing auditing purposes.
Claims
1. A method, comprising:
- in a remote billing transaction service, maintaining purchaser-specific and vendor-specific billing information used for remote billing of charging operations by electric vehicles of a plurality of purchasers with charge stations of a plurality of vendors;
- registering in the remote billing transaction service a unique vehicle client identifier for an electric vehicle, including mapping the unique vehicle client identifier to a first purchaser among the plurality of purchasers that is further mapped to a billing account in the remote billing transaction service;
- registering in the remote billing transaction service a unique charge station identifier for a charge station, including mapping the unique charge station identifier to a first vendor among the plurality of vendors in the remote billing transaction service;
- receiving, in the remote billing transaction service, billing data for assessing fees for a charging operation performed with the electric vehicle from the charging station, including receiving the unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle and the unique charge station identifier for the charge station; and
- attempting to complete a billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station, including: attempting to bill the billing account for the first purchaser for the charging operation; and in response to a determination of insufficient funds when attempting to bill the billing account for the first purchaser for the charging operation, revoking the unique vehicle client identifier and/or notifying the electric vehicle that service is disabled.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the charging operation is a first charging operation, the billing transaction is a first billing transaction, the unique vehicle client identifier is a first unique vehicle client identifier, the billing account is a first billing account, the billing data is first billing data, and the electrical vehicle is a first electric vehicle, the method further comprising:
- registering in the remote billing transaction service a second unique vehicle client identifier for a second electric vehicle, including mapping the second unique vehicle client identifier to a second purchaser among the plurality of purchasers that is further mapped to a second billing account in the remote billing transaction service;
- receiving, in the remote billing transaction service, second billing data for assessing fees for a second charging operation performed with a second electric vehicle from the charging station, including receiving the second unique vehicle client identifier for the second electric vehicle and the unique charge station identifier for the charge station; and
- attempting to complete a second billing transaction for the second charging operation using the received second billing data, second unique vehicle client identifier for the second electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station, including: attempting to bill the second billing account for the second purchaser for the second charging operation; and in response to successful billing of the second billing account for the second purchaser for the second charging operation, issuing a payment to the first vendor and/or a manufacturer of the second electrical vehicle for the second charging operation.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein issuing the payment to the first vendor and/or the manufacturer of the second electric vehicle for the second charging operation includes issuing the payment to the first vendor.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein issuing the payment to the first vendor and/or the manufacturer of the second electrical vehicle for the second charging operation includes issuing the payment to the manufacturer of the second electric vehicle.
5. The method of claim 2, wherein attempting to bill the second billing account includes billing an amount to the second billing account that includes a service fee in addition to a cost for the first charging operation.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein attempting to bill the second billing account is performed for a plurality of charging operations performed during a pre-arranged billing period.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein attempting to complete the billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station includes revoking a public key for the electric vehicle.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein attempting to complete the billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station includes revoking the unique vehicle client identifier.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein attempting to complete the billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station includes notifying the electric vehicle that service is disabled.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the billing data for assessing fees for the charging operation performed with the electric vehicle from the charging station includes receiving a billing information packet related to the charging operation including the unique vehicle client identifier and the unique charge station identifier.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the billing data for assessing fees for the charging operation performed with the electric vehicle from the charging station and attempting to complete the billing transaction are performed in response to a single-action being performed, wherein the single-action includes establishment of a physical connection between the electric vehicle and the charging station by a user of the electric vehicle.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the single-action initiates performance of the charging operation without any subsequent action of the user.
13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:
- in the electric vehicle, detecting establishment of the physical connection between the electric vehicle and the charging station; and
- in the electric vehicle, and in response to detecting the establishment of the physical connection between the electric vehicle and the charging station: receiving the unique charge station identifier from the charging station; and determining that the charging station is compliant with the remote billing transaction service by checking the received unique charge station identifier.
14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:
- in the electrical vehicle, and in response to the charging station being compliant with the remote billing transaction service, initiating a validation procedure between the electric vehicle and the charging station, wherein initiating the validation procedure includes, in the electric vehicle, exchanging public key information with the charging station;
- in response to the validation procedure being successful, performing the charging operation to charge the electric vehicle from the charging station; and
- initiating the billing transaction for the charging operation.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein initiating the billing transaction for the charging operation includes:
- storing the billing data associated with the charging operation in the electric vehicle; and
- communicating the billing data to the remote billing transaction service.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein communicating the billing data to the remote billing transaction service is performed over a network connection between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service.
17. The method of claim 1, wherein the charging operation is performed while no network connection is established between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service, the method further comprising:
- in the electric vehicle, storing the billing data for the charging operation in the electric vehicle; and
- communicating the billing data from the electric vehicle to the remote billing transaction service after the physical connection between the electric vehicle and the charging station has been disconnected and after a network connection has been established between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein storing the billing data for the charging operation in the electric vehicle is performed when the electric vehicle is at a first location where network connectivity between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service is unavailable, and communicating the billing data from the electric vehicle to the remote billing transaction service is performed when the electric vehicle is at a second location where network connectivity is available between the electric vehicle and the remote billing transaction service.
19. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in the electric vehicle, receiving data for the charging station communicated from the remote billing transaction service and updating the charging station with the received data while the physical connection is established between the electric vehicle and the charging station.
20. A remote vehicle billing transaction service, comprising:
- a data storage medium configured to maintain purchaser-specific and vendor-specific billing information used for remote billing of charging operations by electric vehicles of a plurality of purchasers with charge stations of a plurality of vendors; and
- a server system coupled to the data storage medium and configured to: register a unique vehicle client identifier for an electric vehicle, including mapping the unique vehicle client identifier to a first purchaser among the plurality of purchasers that is further mapped to a billing account in the remote billing transaction service; register a unique charge station identifier for a charge station, including mapping the unique charge station identifier to a first vendor among the plurality of vendors in the remote billing transaction service; receive billing data for assessing fees for a charging operation performed with the electric vehicle from the charging station, including receiving the unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle and the unique charge station identifier for the charge station; and attempt to complete a billing transaction for the charging operation using the received billing data, unique vehicle client identifier for the electric vehicle, and unique charge station identifier for the charge station, wherein the server system is configured to attempt to complete the billing transaction by: attempting to bill the billing account for the first purchaser for the charging operation; and in response to a determination of insufficient funds when attempting to bill the billing account for the first purchaser for the charging operation, revoking the unique vehicle client identifier and/or notifying the electric vehicle that service is disabled.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 27, 2023
Publication Date: Jul 20, 2023
Inventors: Paul S. Levy (Albuquerque, NM), Edward Butler (Gilbert, AZ), John C. Thomas (Milwaukie, OR)
Application Number: 18/190,818